Introduction to Labor Tracking

Virtual TimeClock Pro and Network edition have a number of advanced features that can be tailored to fit your specific business needs. An excellent example is the Activities feature, which allows you to categorize and manage labor costs for tasks, projects, or distinct business entities within your company. You can create an unlimited number of activities giving you the ability to track anything from travel time to company meetings.

While most activities are paid, you can also take advantage of the option to create an activity that is unpaid or paid with a limit of time. For example, you can create an unpaid activity for doctor's appointments or errands, enabling you to keep track of your employee's status when they are temporarily off the clock or out of the office. You can even create activities with a limited paid time. This is great for paid rest periods. If you create an activity for a 10 minute paid rest period, any time on this break activity after 10 minutes is recorded as unpaid.

Common Uses for Activities

• Restaurants - Create different activities for employees that receive a different wage. Perhaps they are waiting tables, hosting, or working as part of a catering crew.
• Schools & Universities - Create activities for departments, classrooms, or assigned labs.
• Medical & Dental Offices – Track labor costs for each physician within a practice.
• Law Offices – Track support staff activities or hours on a client's behalf.
• Real Estate - Distribute support labor costs per location, agent, or broker.
• Printing Industry – Track labor and work in progress by assigning each job a unique activity.
• Manufacturing – Define tasks such as acquisition, manufacturing, packaging, and distribution.

Track Labor Costs at Different Locations 
If you have employees that work at multiple locations, create an activity representing each location. For example, 'Downtown', 'Northside', 'Eastside', 'Warehouse.' When roaming employees clock in, they simply select their location. This allows a single timecard for the employee with the ability to easily attribute labor costs to multiple locations or business units.

Track Real-Time User Status
Using the Activities features are great to analyze how labor costs have occurred. It is also an excellent way for mangers or administrators to get a real time, at-a-glance view of what users are doing throughout the day. The In & Out Board displays the current status and elapsed time of each worker's current activity as they clocked in and changed activities during the day. If users change their activity based on their current location, anyone can use Virtual TimeClock to see where someone is located or if they are available real time. Communication can be enhanced between employees when users are allowed to view the real-time status of other users as well.

Our creative customers use Virtual TimeClock Activities in ways we never imagined. They use Activities to provide real-time use of conference and training rooms, shared equipment, and even staff location. If you never know which conference room is available or where to find someone, create a new 'user' that is location specific such as Conference Room or Training Room. You can then create activities for that user/group that include 'Reserved', 'In Use', and 'Available'. Your TimeClock will tell you the real time status for these 'user' locations.

Learn more about the Activities features and how to get started >